How your health can affect your children.
I never really thought about my genes before but this was a really big WOW moment for me. This is going to blow your mind because it has really blown mine. You can change the world you live in long after you are gone by making changes to the way you live your life right now. Let me explain. I was listening to a podcast on the way to work and was drawn in by a discussion about epigenetics. No, I hadn't heard of it either. But once I knew what it was well, mind blown big time. In fact it played on my mind so much that as soon as I got home I Goggled it and then started to type this. There was one sentence the presenter said that really stuck in my mind:
"Your own health is directly affected by the health of your grandparents".
Just think about that for a second. The health of your grandparents has a direct affect on your own health right now. Let's just say they had a poor diet, didn't exercise much and suffered with ill health as they grew older, or even died young. All those bad choices they made before they had your Mum and Dad affected your parents own genetic make up. Then as your Mum and Dad grew up they drew influence from your lazy, unhealthy grandparents and that all affected your own genetic make up when you came along. Can you see how this works? It's an area of science that's still being researched called epigenetics: the study of heritable changes in gene expression.
Now as if that wasn't mind blowing enough, prepare to be blown a whole lot more. There's a pretty big chance your grandparents didn't eat in the same way as us. They didn't have access to any processed junk food and probably had to eat more fresh food too as food preservation techniques like canning and refrigeration were still relatively new. They probably moved more as there were less sedentary jobs and less in the way of labour saving devices to make them lazy. Back then, living was all the exercise they needed. I know for a fact that my paternal Grandfather, Ernest Mumford fought in World War One, saw active service in India and even at the ripe old age of 96 went out walking every single day. His actions have a direct affect on me right now.
Look at the world today.
More and more people sit down for 8 hours or more each day. Many of us consume a terrible diet and at best exercise is a only hobby. We have gadgets that make everything easier to do from mowing the lawn to changing channels on the telly. Doesn't that make you wonder what the world will be like two generations from now? Statistics actually predict that the next generation of adults will, on average, have a shorter life span than us and that's thanks to the choices we are making in this generation. Scary isn't it? It's not just our physical health this has an impact on either. Emotional health can apparently be inherited too. Got a lot of stress in your life? Always in a bad mood? Never think positively about anything? All those behaviours are being hard wired into your DNA for your future generations to enjoy.
So if you do little exercise and don't eat a great diet those decisions not only have an effect on your own health but they will have an impact on your children and even their children. Right now you can do something good about it. Something that will help to protect the health of your own family in the future and help to influence the children you have in your family today. Do you want to know what that is?
Don't eat crap and make exercise a part of your life ... every day.
If we all did those two simple things the world would be much healthier after we are gone. There's one more thing you can do. Share this article with everyone you know right now - then we can really start to change the world.
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